Looking back on it now, Fox yanking "Family Guy" not long after it debuted turned out to be a blessing in disguise. In fact, MacFarlane said "the cancellation was the best thing that happened to the show.""You can write endless fan letters, you can try to bring back 'Party of Five' all you want, but if the dollar signs aren't there you are screwed," he said. "This was literally a case where people were writing letters with their checkbooks by buying the DVDs and Fox said 'Ok, there's money to be made here.'"

http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/11/seth-macfarlane-offers-glimpse-of-ted-at-sxsw/

http://www.thetvcritic.org/assets/Family-Guy/_resampled/ResizedImage600287-vlcsnap-52429.png

yeah but we could be up to season 13 by now! :(

We'd actually be in season 14 now.